THE LITTLE GIRL
WHO LIVES DOWN THE LANE
Well-crafted, smart, thoughtful and intense
Here's a horror movie of a different kind for ya. It stars a very young Jodie Foster as a 13-year-old girl who lives, as it becomes increasingly apparent, alone, despite her claims to various visiting townspeople that Dad's upstairs and very busy. She's got a secret or two, and acquires a few more throughout the movie.
This life has been working out for her, but a society that won't trust an extremely bright and mature girl to take care of herself gets entirely too nosey, and it doesn't help that a sexually predatory man (played with typical Sheen sleaze) has set his twisted sights on her. On the plus side, the girl befriends a polio-stricken amateur magician and his policeman uncle. Here's hoping they don't see what's in the cellar... That's all I want to give away here.
It's not a horror movie in the traditional sense, but you'll know what I mean when you see it. Performances and writing is very good all around, but Jodie Foster really shines here, in a performance that's even better than her work in Taxi Driver. It's an extraordinarily rare thing to see a fictional child this bright and mature who is written and performed so well - so often, you just can't buy it. But here, it works and works gloriously.
The climax of the tale, which employs an ages-old suspense-film cliche, is made wonderful with all the nuance of performance and writing. Again, you'd have to see it to know what I mean. Box says it's rated R; it's really PG.
The only serious drawback to the film is the godawful music. Otherwise, it's most definitely worth a look.